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GOP senator 'handing a gift' to Biden by doubling down on Social Security-trashing plan: analyst
February 9, 2023 8:28PM ET
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is on the defensive after President Joe Biden tarred the GOP during the State of the Union Address with Scott's plan to periodically "sunset" Social Security and Medicare — and traveled to Florida to give a roomful of people copies of his proposal to do so.
On Thursday, a CNN panel speculated that Scott's ongoing defense of his proposal is just making Biden's attack on the GOP that much more effective.
"When you defend, put yourself as the defender of extraordinarily popular public programs, that's a pretty good position to be in for politics," said analyst David Chalian. "It's not just haphazard that this has long been called the third rail of American politics, and Democrats and President Biden think Rick Scott went and grabbed that rail about a year ago. They're not the only one, by the way. Mitch McConnell clearly thinks Rick Scott did as well, and that he's getting singed by it now. So, they're pressing this advantage. It is a politically advantageous place for Biden to be because of how unbelievably popular these programs are."
"Especially in Florida, where there's a huge elderly population that relies on Social Security and Medicare," agreed anchor Wolf Blitzer, turning to commentator Nia Malika-Henderson. "Is Senator Rick Scott essentially handing a gift to the President of the United States?"
"Absolutely," said Malika Henderson. "Listen, you mentioned Mitch McConnell. This is what he was nervous about in 2022 when Rick Scott rolled out this plan. Even back in 2022, Biden was making an issue of it. He went to Florida. He passed out Rick Scott's 12-point plan to a crowd there and was highlighting this idea that Rick Scott had of essentially putting Medicare and Social Security up on the table, and up for grabs, every five years, and having it be reauthorized."
"I think the problem that Republicans have on this is they have talked about changing Social Security, raising the retirement age, same with Medicare, privatizing Social Security," Malika-Henderson continued. "So, it's kind of an easy attack, because we've been here over many years with Republicans and Social Security and these very popular entitlement programs. So, I think it puts Biden in a good position, not only going into 2024, but going into these debt ceiling negotiations as well, because you have Republicans repeatedly saying this is not what we want to do. This is not what we want to do, but if you're explaining, you're sort of losing, I think."
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Watch the segment below or at this link.
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